Ted Grant

Stalin scraps “Internationale”

The announcement of the decision to abolish the
Internationale as the anthem of the Soviet Union marks a
step of profound and symbolic importance. The step has been hailed
with discreet and enthusiastic approval by the capitalist press of
Britain, America and other countries. The formerly openly
pro-fascist and anti-Soviet press has revealed its jubilation, the
Daily Mail in its leader column pointing out its meaning as
the formal end of the “Trotskyist” idea of world
revolution.

The scrapping of the Internationale and its substitution
by a reactionary national anthem is of course a logical development
following the open abandonment by Stalin and the bureaucracy in
Russia of the hollow pretence of standing for world Socialism by
the abolition of the Comintern[1]. It marks the consolidation,
however uneasy, of the power of the Nationalist military cliques in
Russia, who are attempting to find a common language and a common
basis with the imperialists of the West. It is a further guarantee
and reassurance to the capitalist class in Britain and America that
so far as the rest of Europe and the world are concerned, Russia
now has purely “national” aims and stands on the same
side of “law and order”, i.e. capitalist property, as
they do. This trend has been well understood by the representatives
of the capitalist class not only in the Governments but the
well-informed business men, journalists etc. In the New York
Times of October 31st, C. L. Sulzberger writes:

“Many Russians [i.e. Russian Stalinist bureaucrats in the
Embassy etc. - EG] with whom the writer has talked frankly
discussed the dangers of a communised Germany. They take the view
that this would eventually turn in the direction of Trotskyism and
might conceivably begin once again, therefore, to foment dangers
for the Soviet Union—a possibility which will at all costs
have to be avoided.”

But the betrayal of the policy for which Marx and Lenin fought
all their lives is reflected not only in the abandonment of the
struggle for International Socialism but in the speeding up of the
bureaucratic degeneration of the Soviet Union. The Observer
of December 26th, 1943 soberly assessing the
significance of the new move remarks:

“The abolition of the Internationale as the
national anthem of the Soviet Union and its replacement, by a
national and patriotic song comes at the end of a year which has
seen more fundamental changes in Russia that any since the great
revolution. The restoration of an officer corps; the abolition of
the political commissars in the army; the adoption by Stalin of the
title of Marshall; the dissolution of the Comintern; the
restoration of the Russian Church—all this together, now
symbolised in the change of the national anthem amounts to little
less than a new revolution from above, peaceful and orderly, but
profound.”

Aside from the reference to a “peaceful” and
“orderly” change, which is merely introduced to
indicate approval of the change, the comment is fairly shrewd and
accurate. All these steps are in a counter-revolutionary direction
and favourable to the interests of world imperialism, which is
anxiously watching the development of events in the Soviet Union.
Stalinism, which represented the interests of the officialdom in
Russia, having usurped power from the masses, is now moving at an
accelerated pace away from the ideals of the October Revolution.
Power has passed from the civil to the military bureaucracy.

The “Communist” Party faced with this new
contemptuous slap in the face to the ideals of Socialism, has, as
was inevitable, attempted to justify this new betrayal. On the
first day following the news the Daily Worker printed the
announcement without comment. They were waiting for the
“Party line”. Then they issued a statement which
claimed that nothing had been changed. Russia had made its
revolution and achieved “Socialism” and therefore the
Internationale no longer applied, they have argued. Apart
from the fact that the idea in making the Internationale the
anthem of the Soviet Union was conceived as linking the workers of
Russia, and the Soviet Union itself, to the world working class, as
part of the struggle for liberation of the world working class like
all the other conceptions of Bolshevism under Lenin’s
leadership. The oath of the Red Army (long since changed) pledged
the Red Army to serve faithfully the interests of the world working
class; and the Red Army was described by Lenin as one of the arms
of the Communist International. In any case the flimsy character of
the lie is exposed when it is remembered that the Stalinists more
than a decade ago falsely announced the lie that Socialism had been
established. If the Internationale is not necessary now, why
was it necessary then?

This declaration constitutes a new stab in the back for the Red
Army and the world working class. It will prepare the way for new
blows on the part of the Stalinist bureaucracy. Nevertheless, it
should be welcomed by the advanced worker; as helping to clear the
minds of the world working class of any illusion that Stalinism
still remains a revolutionary force striving for Socialism. It is
clear that the banner of Socialism, the banner of the
Internationale, is now carried by the Fourth International
alone. Officially dropped by the traitor Stalinist bureaucrats, it
now belongs to us who proudly adopt the song of the Paris Commune
and of the October Revolution, the song of Marx and Engels, the
song of Lenin and Trotsky, as our anthem.